"pkg-config script could not be found" on OSX

Question

I am trying to install some software on my mac; however I keep receiving the same error:

configure: error: The pkg-config script could not be found or is too old.  Make sure it
is in your PATH or set the PKG_CONFIG environment variable to the full
path to pkg-config.

Alternatively, you may set the environment variables XMEDCON_GLIB_CFLAGS
and XMEDCON_GLIB_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config.
See the pkg-config man page for more details.

To get pkg-config, see <http://pkg-config.freedesktop.org/>.
See `config.log' for more details

I am not quite sure how to go about adding the pkg-config to the PATH. I have seen online (see link) that I should add the following:

Link showing how to direct PATH variable

export PATH=$PATH:/opt/local/bin     # Fixed typo as mentioned in comment

which is where I have placed pkg-config. I still keep getting the error though every time I try to configure the files using ./configure. Any help would be super appreciated!

Answer 1

For Ubuntu/Debian OS,

apt-get install -y pkg-config

For Redhat/Yum OS,

yum install -y pkgconfig

For Archlinux OS,

pacman -S pkgconf

Answer 2

for me, (OSX) the problem was solved doing this:

brew install pkg-config

Answer 3

if you have this error :

configure: error: Either a previously installed pkg-config or "glib-2.0 >= 2.16" could not be found. Please set GLIB_CFLAGS and GLIB_LIBS to the correct values or pass --with-internal-glib to configure to use the bundled copy.

Instead of do this command :

$ ./configure && make install

Do that :

./configure --with-internal-glib && make install

Answer 4

Try

• which pkg-config
• if it is empty then fire
  1. brew install pkg-config
  2. OR : ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)" < /dev/null 2> /dev/null

Answer 5

MacOS users

Unfortunately, pkg-config does not come with OS X by default. Here are some notes on how to compile from source. It assumes that you have Xcode installed.

1. Download and extract

curl -O http://pkgconfig.freedesktop.org/releases/pkg-config-0.28.tar.gz
tar xfz pkg-config-0.28.tar.gz

2. Configure and Install

cd pkg-config-0.28
setenv CC /usr/bin/cc (for tcsh)
export CC=/usr/bin/cc (for bash)

2a) If you have super-user powers

./configure --prefix=/usr/local CC=$CC --with-internal-glib
make
sudo make install

2b) if not

./configure --prefix=$HOME/someplace/in/my/path CC=$CC --with-internal-glib
make
make install

Source: https://opensource.ncsa.illinois.edu/confluence/display/DESDM/Installing+pkg-config+from+source+for+OSX